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Tauranga City Council’s vision for growth unveiled

Tauranga City Council has unveiled its strategy for one of New Zealand’s fastest growing cities.

The proposed changes outlined in the strategy over the coming decades will take Tauranga from a city built around suburban living to a city that offers an urban lifestyle.

Consultation on the Tauranga Urban Strategy runs from October 5 to November 5, alongside the SmartGrowth Partnership’s Future Development Strategy which addresses growth across the Western Bay of Plenty District and Tauranga City.

By 2050 its predicted that Tauranga’s population will boom by more than 50,000 people – that’s nearly the Bay Dreams crowd twice over, more than double the capacity of ASB Baypark Stadium or one and a half times the size of the entire population of Whakatane.

Mayor Greg Brownless explains that the city needs tens of thousands of new homes to cater for this growth, and we need to be smart about where we put them.

“Continuing to spread our communities over a larger area impacts on our natural environment and causes issues with traffic, making it harder to get to work or to school, or to shops and other services.

“The Tauranga Urban Strategy seeks to address the challenges that come with growth, with a greater emphasis on paving the way for more housing closer to town or community centres, rather than new subdivision developments on the outskirts of town on formally rural land.

“Vibrant town centres will be places we not only visit to work, learn or to play – but will be places where we choose to live. Far more of us will live just a short walk from the action, and great public spaces will be connected across the city with a variety of transport options other than having to rely on the car to drive between them.”